The September service change for transit is coming soon with Community Transit releasing their plans early amongst local transit agencies. Beginning on September 22nd, Community Transit will deploy additional service and make schedule adjustments across more than a dozen routes. Riders will welcome the change later service on Sundays and holidays on nine routes.
In March, Community Transit started running the Swift Green Line, a new bus rapid transit service, between Canyon Park in Bothell and Seaway Transit Center in Everett via Mill Creek. More than 40,000 new annual service hours were phased in as part of the March service change, most of which went to the Swift Green Line.
Community Transit now has over 450,000 annual service hours dedicated to bus service. This September service change will add several thousand new annual service hours, a trend likely to continue each biannual service change for the next few years. The transit agency only projects about 16,000 new annual service hours being added per year through 2022. Transit riders should expect service changes to focus on small increases to improve frequency, expand span of service, and add more weekend service where resources allow. Bigger things are on the horizon as part of the 2024 service restructure when the Lynnwood Link extension opens.
Community Transit’s Swift Lines will be getting similar changes:
- Swift Blue Line service will be extended until 9pm on Sundays and holidays, which is currently curtailed at 8.40pm. On weekdays, the line will start earlier at 4.15am with trips running every 15 minutes until the 6am hour where frequency increases to every 10 minutes. Currently, service starts at 4.20am with 20-minute frequency during the same time period. The remainder of weekday service will remain unchanged. Additionally, Saturday service will improve to every 15 minutes from 6am to 7pm, which currently is only provided with 20-minute frequency. The remainder of Saturday service will remain at 20-minute frequency.
- Swift Green Line service will be extended until 9pm on Sundays and holidays, which is currently curtailed at 8.40pm. On weekdays, the line will start earlier at 4.15am with trips running every 15 minutes until the 6am hour where frequency increases to every 10 minutes. Currently, service starts at 4.20am with 20-minute frequency during the same time period. The remainder of weekday service will remain unchanged.
Other service changes across the Community Transit network include the following:
- Route 201 will be upgraded to hourly service all day on Sundays and holidays. This will help Routes 201 and 202 provide 30-minute frequency along their shared corridor segment. Currently, Route 202 only operates on Sundays at an hourly frequency from the 7am hour through the 8pm hour. Route 201 should will operate around the same time periods.
- Route 202 will receive one extra southbound trip in the evening on Sundays and holiday to extend service through 9pm hour.
- Route 112 will receive extra morning and evening trips on Sundays and holidays to extend service. One roundtrip will go to the 7am hour and one roundtrip will go to the 9pm hour to provide hourly service throughout the whole timeframe.
- Routes 113, 116, and 271 will each receive an extra roundtrip on Sundays and holidays to extend service through 9pm.
- Route 280 will receive on extra westbound trip in the evening on Sundays and holiday to extend service through 9pm hour.
- Routes 227 and 247 will have their trip times adjusted so that they better connect with other local transit services departing from the Seaway Transit Center, including the Boeing shuttles.
- Routes 116, 130, and 196 will have weekday trips times adjusted for mornings and afternoons. The trip times will be modified to better provide connections to and from Sounder commuter rail trains at Edmonds Station. Community Transit plans to have morning buses to the station arrive 10 minutes before the train arrives and afternoon buses to depart 10 minutes after the train arrives.
Additional service additions are anticipated to come in March 2020.
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.